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Massbuild, in partnership with Standard bank, is extending a R20million line of credit to ten pre-approved BEE construction businesses which, without such a facility, might not otherwise be able to go after the big government or community upliftment contracts in which they specialize, from low-cost housing to libraries and hospitals. They’ll also be offering technical and operational assistance through Tusk Construction Support Services which will give them advice on inter alia, cash flow and supply chain management. And once this endeavour is bedded down, the Men in Black intend to boost the funding and extend the offer to more contractors. This move will not only extend the customer base, a sector of which generally buys around 65% of its supplies on tick, but also develop the enterprises in question. 

Comment: While doing the right thing by the community and securing for themselves a tidy share of the government buck. Win, win, win, you’d have to say.

Loathe as we are to toot on our own brass instrument … in fact, what the heck, yay us. Trade Intelligence, which publishes this august periodical, is proud to announce the addition of a new feature on our website: ten searching questions, and their no doubt illuminating answers, with various respected, influential or even controversial industry figures – leaders, visionaries, thinkers and doers alike. First up is Eugene Stoop, the quietly successful CEO of Boxer, who is transforming an unassuming Cash and Carry brand into a continental retail force. Next up: Cobus Rossouw, Chief Integration Officer at Imperial Logistics and one of SA’s leading lights in the supply chain industry.

Comment: These insightful pieces will change the way you think about business in our exciting and challenging market.

Pleasing stuff over at Anglovaal Industries Limited (pronounced in the throaty, quavering tones of someone who still says “Johannesburg”). Turnover, you see, is up a respectable 10.4% to R5.4billion year on year for the six months to the end of December. The best performer, they hint, was in the biscuits and snacks category, whilst gross profit margin came under pressure from a declining margin in the footwear business, though how anyone can fail to make a buck on a Jimmy Choo is beyond us. Aside from this, they are being pretty opaque about the results, doubtless wishing not to spoil the fun for the official release in March. However, they did mention something about a R150milion payment to Indigo brands from Coty following the revision of their commercial relationship-this being included in the results as a capital item.

Comment: Something to look forward to eh?

Foodcorp and Oceana are not taking lying down the Competition Commission’s order lightly. Should Oceana wish to acquire Foodcorp’s fishing business, Foodcorp will first have to sell of its Glenryck Pilchard brand to a third party in order to avoid market dominance with Oceana’s iconic Lucky Star brand. This would involve the disposal of its fish quota, which is allocated by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. The loss of the quota, say Oceana, would involve shutting down a processing facility owned by Foodcorp, employing over 1000 people whose salaries Oceana would otherwise have been happy to pick up. The two brands, say the Commission, would have a combined market share of 80%.

Comment: Which does rather smack off a restricted market, to be honest.

The Big Feller is not impervious to the pinch the rest of us are feeling in these straitened times. Volumes in lager sales were down 2% for the three months to December last year (traditionally a thirsty season) suggesting that waning consumer confidence, as well as the very real constraints on the liquidity of Joe and Mrs Six Pack, are making themselves felt. But there might be other issue, viz. and to wit the understandable stockpiling of beer which took place before the mid-September price increase, as well as a strike which ran through much of October. On the upside, premium brands like Castles Light and Castle Milk Stout saw combined sales growth in excess of 10% over the same period. This indicates that it is the lower income consumers who are unable to keep up their consumption in tough times.

Comment: Not the bombproof beverage after all, it appears.

OK, this time the tufted practitioners of the dismal science were only 2% out, but don’t deny us our simple pleasures. Inflation came in at 5.4% for the month of November, with most economystics believing until the last minute that it would be closer to 5.6% year on year. Month on month, the number was 0.3%. This leaves inflation within the government’s targeted band, at a time of depressed economic growth, which suggests that the dear old Reserve Bank will leave the interest rate at its merely extortionate level rather than ramping it up to life-sucking. Even the current flurry of fuel price increases, it seems, is having little effect on the index.

Comment: Small mercies, people. Small mercies.

In what you’d have to read as a canny vote of confidence, the Public Investments Corporation Limited (PIC) has upped its stake in SPAR to 20.086%. The PIC, you will recall, invests the hard-earned pensions of South Africa’s civil servants in enterprises where they will presumably work hardest (the pensions, that it, not…oh, never mind) and is Africa’s biggest money manager.

Look, if you have a narrow obsession with getting your product on shelf, read no further, but the Cape Argus Pick ‘n Pay Cycle Tour, you will be perhaps edified, perhaps enchanted to know, has received hon. mench. in the National Geographic Book "Journey of a Lifetime - 500 of the World's Greatest Trips". Which is nice.